Auto-maintained document classification

ABSTRACT

Machines, systems and methods for maintaining a representative data set in a document classification system, the method comprising: including an initial set of seed representative data in a representative data set (RDS) implemented for a knowledge base (KB), wherein the KB is trained to classify documents provided to a document classification system based on analysis of the representative documents included in the RDS and a set of rules, wherein the seed representative data includes a balanced number of representative data across a plurality of classes; updating the RDS by adding or removing representative data from the RDS based on feedback received about accuracy of classification of one or more documents by the classification system; and retraining the KB, wherein the retraining is performed based on occurrence of one or more events.

COPYRIGHT & TRADEMARK NOTICES

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may containmaterial, which is subject to copyright protection. The owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patentdocument or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyrights whatsoever.

Certain marks referenced herein may be common law or registeredtrademarks of the applicant, the assignee or third parties affiliated orunaffiliated with the applicant or the assignee. Use of these marks isfor providing an enabling disclosure by way of example and shall not beconstrued to exclusively limit the. scope of the disclosed subjectmatter to material associated with such marks.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/900,605, entitled “AUTO-MAINTAINED DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION” and filedMay 23, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The disclosed subject matter relates generally to documentclassification systems and, more particularly, to maintaining arepresentative data set in a document classification system.

2. Discussion Of The Related Art

A document classification system comprises a knowledge base (KB) thatcan be trained to classify documents into categories, based oninformation included in a representative data set (RDS). When a documentis to be classified, a statistical analysis of the document is performedand, based on the information in the KB, a classification is determinedas the best category match for the target document. The RDS may notcontain enough information, or over time its data may become outdatedand hence the classification system may not be as accurate as desired,if the data in the RDS is no longer a true representative of thedifferent document classes.

A common practice in example-based classification is to train a KB fromscratch at initialization and to also periodically retrain the KB. Thispractice gives high accuracy but, as mentioned, requires periodicmaintenance by a human operator as well as keeping a large set oftraining documents available. A second common practice is to addincremental feedbacks to an existing KB. This second approach isconvenient from the maintenance perspective, but requires great care toavoid bias that degrades the KB.

SUMMARY

For purposes of summarizing, certain aspects, advantages, and novelfeatures have been described herein. It is to be understood that not allsuch advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particularembodiment. Thus, the disclosed subject matter may be embodied orcarried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage orgroup of advantages without achieving all advantages as may be taught orsuggested herein.

In accordance with one embodiment, machines, systems and methods formaintaining a representative data set in a document classificationsystem are provided. The method may comprise: including an initial setof seed representative data in a representative data set (RDS)implemented for a knowledge base (KB), wherein the KB is trained toclassify documents provided to a document classification system based onanalysis of the representative documents included in the RDS and a setof rules, wherein the seed representative data includes a balancednumber of representative data across a plurality of classes; updatingthe RDS by adding or removing representative data from the RDS based onfeedback received about accuracy of classification of one or moredocuments by the classification system, and retraining the KB, whereinthe retraining is performed based on occurrence of one or more events.

In accordance with one or more embodiments, a system comprising one ormore logic units is provided. The one or more logic units are configuredto perform the functions and operations associated with theabove-disclosed methods. In yet another embodiment, a computer programproduct comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computerreadable program is provided. The computer readable program whenexecuted on a computer causes the computer to perform the functions andoperations associated with the above-disclosed methods.

One or more of the above-disclosed embodiments in addition to certainalternatives are provided in further detail below with reference to theattached figures. The disclosed subject matter is not, however, limitedto any particular embodiment disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosed embodiments may be better understood by referring to thefigures in the attached drawings, as provided below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary document classification systemin accordance with one embodiment,

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method of maintaining a documentclassification system in accordance with one embodiment.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are example block diagrams of hardware and softwareenvironments in which the systems and methods disclosed herein. may beoperational in accordance with one embodiment,

Features, elements, and aspects that are referenced by the same numeralsin different figures represent the same, equivalent, or similarfeatures, elements, or aspects, in accordance with one or moreembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following, numerous specific details are set forth to provide athorough description of various embodiments. Certain embodiments may bepracticed without these specific details or with some variations indetail. In some instances, certain features are described in less detailso as not to obscure other aspects. The level of detail associated witheach of the elements or features should not be construed to qualify thenovelty or importance of one feature over the others.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary document classification system 100 isillustrated. A knowledge base 120 may include a representative data set(RDS) 110. RDS 110 may include sets of data that are representatives ofvarious document classes. As such, the representative data in the RDSmay be used to identify a document class from a plurality of documentclasses (e.g., classes A, B, C) for a target document. For example, asshown in FIG. 1, docs 1 through 8 may be representatives of documentsbelonging to different classes, such that representative data for docs1, 2 and 3 may be associated with class A, representative data for doc 4may be associated with class B, and representative data for docs 5through 8 may be associated with class C.

Depending on implementation, an analytical engine 130 may be provided,either as an independent element, or as an integral part of theknowledge base 120, Analytical engine 130 may be trained based on thecontent of the RDS 110 to classify documents in document classificationsystem 100. When a new document 180 is to be classified, analyticalengine 130 analyzes the content of the new document 180 against thecontent of the representative data in the RDS 110 and, optionally basedon a set of rules, classifies the new document 180. In a trivial exampleshown in FIG. 1, if the content of the new document 180 best matches therepresentative data for doc 5, for example, then the new document 180 isclassified under class C, because doc 5 is associated with class C.

In one embodiment, data in RDS 110 is periodically calibrated to ensurethat the representative data for documents representative documents) areproperly classified, as the nature of the documents submitted forclassification change or based on feedback 190 provided to theclassification system 100 by one or more human operators, The feedback190 may provide information as to the proper classification of certaindocuments by indicating whether the classification system correctly orincorrectly classified a document according to the knowledge of thehuman operator. For example, a document may be classified in class A,but feedback 190 may suggest that it would have been more proper for thedocument to have been classified in class B. If so, then the RDS 110 orrules used by analytical engine 130 may be adjusted to accommodate theprovided feedback 190.

Changes in the manner of classification of representative documents andalso the number of representative documents in the RDS 110 affect theaccuracy level with which the knowledge base 120 classifies newdocuments. if the RDS is not properly calibrated or maintained, bias maybe introduced in the document classification system 100 toward acertain. class as the result of provided feedback 190. In other words,bias towards a certain class may result when an uneven amount offeedback is received in favor of a certain class or against a certainclass. For example, receiving a lot of feedback for documents classifiedin class A, as positive, and receiving very few feedbacks for documentsclassified in class B, as negative, may result in the analytical engine130 being adjusted to be biased toward classifying more documents inclass A, instead of class B.

Referring to FIG. 2, to prevent heavy bias, the RDS 110 may beimplemented so that the RDS 110 includes a core number of seedrepresentative documents that evenly represent the different classes(S210). For example, the seed may include 5 representative documents foreach of the classes A, B and C. As such, in one implementation, aknowledge base 120 may be trained with a number of seed documents in theRDS 110 (S220), even if the training is being done from scratch (e.g., ascenario where the document classification system 100 has not beenutilized for commercial use). In this manner, the initial feedbackprovided by the human operators to the system does not heavily sway in aparticular direction, because the seed representative documentspreviously included in the RDS 110 help soften any bias in the knowledgebase 120 that would otherwise occur if the knowledge base 120 was beingtrained without any seed representative documents. That is, the seedensures a certain quality even if subsequent feedback is not veryaccurate.

Feedbacks 190 may be received as document classification system 100 isoperational (S230). When new feedback is received, a determination ismade whether a new representative document is to he added to the RDS 110based on the feedback (S240). For example, adding a new representativedocument to the seed may result in class A having 6 representativedocuments, where classes B and C remain as having 5 representativedocuments each. If a representative document is added to RDS 110, theknowledge base 120 may need to be updated or retrained (S220) so thatthe newly added representative document is taken into account for thepurpose of classifying new documents 180. Depending on implementation,an update session or a retraining session may be invoked as soon as thenew representative document is added or at a later time.

In one embodiment, it is desirable to invoke a retraining session at apoint in time when such retraining is most meaningful. This is becausefrequent training sessions may result in repeated delays and downtimedepending on the number of feedbacks 190 received and the number ofrepresentative documents that are added to RDS 110. In other words,constant updating of the RDS 110 and retraining of the analytical engine130 may not improve the quality of the classification system 100 by asignificant level. Therefore, in one embodiment, the updating andretraining processes may be performed as triggered by an event or aftera certain time period has passed.

For example, N feedbacks may be provided to document classificationsystem 100 and, as a result, X representative documents may be added tothe RDS 110. Depending on implementation, the analytical engine 130 maybe retrained, if N is greater than a first threshold. Alternatively, theanalytical engine 130 may be retrained if X is greater than a secondthreshold. Optionally, both thresholds may need to be satisfied beforethe analytical engine 130 is retrained. As noted above, the retrainingof the analytical engine 130 may be based on other threshold settings,such as: (1) after a certain time interval has passed, (2) in the eventthat a certain number of documents are deleted from the RDS 110, or (3)upon occurrence of other events that may affect the accuracy of theknowledge base 120 or the content of the RDS 110.

In one implementation, to optimize the level of maintenance of the RDS110, various parameters associated with RDS 110 may be monitoredautomatically, such as the total number of documents, the size of theclasses, or the overall size of the RDS 110, if the sizes of the classesor the RDS 110 exceed respective thresholds, then certain documents maybe deleted from the RDS 110. The manner in which the documents areselected for deletion may be based on different factors, such as the ageof the documents, the size of the documents, the number of documents incertain classes, the categories in which the documents are classifiedin, etc.

For example, it may be desirable to have no more than 10 and no lessthan 5 representative documents in each class, As another example, itmay be desirable to keep representative documents that fall in rarecategories in the RDS 110, even if such representative data are veryold, As such, in one implementation, certain documents may he locked(e.g., identified as preferred or given a higher level of importance) sothat the locked documents may not he deleted from the RDS 110.Maintaining rare or hard to get representative documents in the RDS 110provide for better accuracy in classification and help build the RDS 110with additional representative documents that fall in the rare category.

References in this specification to “an embodiment”, “one embodiment”,“one or more embodiments” or the like, mean that the particular element,feature, structure or characteristic being described is included in atleast one embodiment of the disclosed subject matter. Occurrences ofsuch phrases in this specification should not he particularly construedas referring to the same embodiment, nor should such phrases beinterpreted as referring to embodiments that are mutually exclusive withrespect to the discussed features or elements.

In different embodiments, the claimed subject matter may be implementedas a combination of both hardware and software elements, oralternatively either entirely in the form of hardware or entirely in theform of software. Further, computing systems and program softwaredisclosed herein may comprise a controlled computing environment thatmay be presented in terms of hardware components or logic code executedto perform methods and processes that achieve the results contemplatedherein. Said methods and processes, when performed by a general purposecomputing system or machine, convert the general purpose machine to aspecific purpose machine.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a computing system environment in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment may be composed of a hardware environment1110 and a software environment 1120. The hardware environment 1110 maycomprise logic units, circuits or other machinery and equipments thatprovide an execution environment for the components of softwareenvironment 1120. In turn, the software environment 1120 may provide theexecution instructions, including the underlying operational settingsand configurations, for the various components of hardware environment1110.

Referring to FIG. 3, the application software and logic code disclosedherein may be implemented in the form of machine readable code executedover one or more computing systems represented by the exemplary hardwareenvironment 1110. As illustrated, hardware environment 1110 may comprisea processor 1101 coupled to one or more storage elements by way of asystem bus 1100. The storage elements, for example, may comprise localmemory 1102, storage media 1106, cache memory 1104 or othermachine-usable or computer readable media. Within the context of thisdisclosure, a machine usable or computer readable storage medium mayinclude any recordable article that may be utilized to contain, store,communicate, propagate or transport program code.

A computer readable storage medium may be an electronic, magnetic,optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor, system, apparatusor device. Examples of a computer readable storage medium may include asemiconductor or solid-state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a carrier wave, whereappropriate. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk,read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk read/write (CD-R/W), digitalvideo disk (DVD), high definition video disk (RD-DVD) or Blue-ray™ disk.

In one embodiment, processor 1101 loads executable code from storagemedia 1106 to local memory 1102, Cache memory 1104 optimizes processingtime by providing temporary storage that helps reduce the number oftimes code is loaded for execution. One or more user interface devices1105 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, etc.) and a display screen 1107may be coupled to the other elements in the hardware environment 1110either directly or through. an intervening I/O controller 1103, forexample. A communication interface unit 1108, such as a network adapter,may be provided to enable the hardware environment 1110 to communicatewith local or remotely located computing systems, printers and storagedevices via intervening private or public networks (e.g., the Internet).Wired or wireless modems and Ethernet cards are a few of the exemplarytypes of network adapters.

It is noteworthy that hardware environment 1110, in certainimplementations, may not include some or all the above components, ormay comprise additional components to provide supplemental functionalityor utility. Depending on the contemplated use and configuration,hardware environment 1110 may be a machine such as a desktop or a laptopcomputer, or other computing device optionally embodied in an embeddedsystem such as a set-top box, a personal digital assistant (PDA), apersonal media player, a mobile communication unit (e.g., a wirelessphone), or other similar hardware platforms that have informationprocessing or data storage capabilities.

In some embodiments, communication interface 1108 acts as a datacommunication port to provide means of communication with one or morecomputing systems by sending and receiving digital, electrical,electromagnetic or optical signals that carry analog or digital datastreams representing various types of information, including programcode. The communication may be established by way of a local or a remotenetwork, or alternatively by way of transmission over the air or othermedium, including without limitation propagation over a carrier wave.

As provided here, the disclosed software elements that are executed onthe illustrated hardware elements are defined according to logical orfunctional relationships that are exemplary in nature, It should benoted, however, that the respective methods that are implemented by wayof said exemplary software elements may be also encoded in said hardwareelements by way of configured and programmed processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSPs), for example.

Referring to FIG. 4, software environment 1120 may be generally dividedinto two classes comprising system software 1121. and applicationsoftware 1122 as executed on one or more hardware environments 1110. Inone embodiment, the methods and processes disclosed here may beimplemented as system software 1121, application software 1122, or acombination thereof. System software 1121 may comprise control programs,such as an operating system (OS) or an information management system,that instruct one or more processors 1101 (e.g., microcontrollers) inthe hardware environment 1110 on how to function and processinformation. Application software 1122 may comprise but is not limitedto program code, data structures, firmware, resident software, microcodeor any other form of information or routine that may be read, analyzedor executed by a processor 1101.

In other words, application software 1122 may be implemented. as programcode embedded in a computer program product in the form of amachine-usable or computer readable storage medium that provides programcode for use by, or in connection with, a machine, a computer or anyinstruction execution system. Moreover, application software 1122 maycomprise one or more computer programs that are executed on top ofsystem. software 1121 after being loaded from storage media 1106 intolocal memory 1102. In a client-server architecture, application software1122 may comprise client software and server software. For example, inone embodiment, client software may be executed on a client computingsystem that is distinct and separable from a server computing system onwhich server software is executed.

Software environment 1120 may also comprise browser software 1126 foraccessing data available over local or remote computing networks.Further, software environment 1120 may comprise a user interface 1124(e.g., a graphical user interface (GUI)) for receiving user commands anddata. It is worthy to repeat that the hardware and softwarearchitectures and environments described above are for purposes ofexample. As such, one or more embodiments may be implemented over anytype of system architecture, functional or logical platform orprocessing environment.

It should also he understood that the logic code, programs, modules,processes, methods and the order in which the respective processes ofeach method are performed are purely exemplary. Depending onimplementation, the processes or any underlying sub-processes andmethods may he performed in any order or concurrently, unless indicatedotherwise in the present disclosure. Further, unless stated otherwisewith specificity, the definition of logic code within the context ofthis disclosure is not related or limited to any particular programminglanguage, and may comprise one or more modules that may be executed onone or more processors in distributed, non-distributed, single ormultiprocessing environments.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system,”Furthermore, the subject matter disclosed may be implemented as acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablestorage medium(s) having computer readable program code embodiedthereon. Any combination of one or more computer readable storagemedium(s) may be utilized, The computer readable storage medium may be acomputer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. Acomputer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer readable storage medium would include the following: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing.

In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium maybe any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use byor in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice. A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated datasignal with computer readable program code embodied therein, forexample, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagatedsignal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limitedto, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable storage medium may betransmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited towireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitablecombination of the foregoing. Computer program code for carrying out thedisclosed operations may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages.

The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly onthe user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on theuser's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on theremote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computermay be connected to the user's computer through any type of network,including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), orthe connection may be made to an external computer (for example, throughthe Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

Certain embodiments are disclosed with reference to flowchartillustrations or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments. It will beunderstood that each block of the flowchart illustrations or blockdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, a special purpose machinery, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions or acts specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable storage medium that can direct a computer, other programmabledata processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablestorage medium produce an article of manufacture including instructionswhich implement the function or act specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer or machineimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions or acts specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or blockdiagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, whichcomprises one or more executable instructions for implementing thespecified logical functions. It should also be noted that, in somealternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occurin any order or out of the order noted in the figures.

For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executedsubstantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed inthe reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It willalso be noted that each block of the block diagrams or flowchartillustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams orflowchart illustration, may be implemented by special purposehardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, orcombinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The claimed subject matter has been provided here with reference to oneor more features or embodiments. Those skilled in the art will recognizeand appreciate that, despite of the detailed nature of the exemplaryembodiments provided here, changes and modifications may be applied tosaid embodiments without limiting or departing from the generallyintended scope. These and various other adaptations and combinations ofthe embodiments provided here are within the scope of the disclosedsubject matter as defined by the claims and their full set ofequivalents. The descriptions of the various embodiments of the presentinvention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are notintended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein, and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “has”, “have”, “having”, “with”and the like, when used in this specification, specify the presence ofstated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/orcomponents, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or moreother features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for maintaining a representative dataset in a document classification system, the method comprising:including an initial set of seed representative data in a representativedata set (RDS) implemented for a knowledge base (KB), wherein the KB istrained to classify documents provided to a document classificationsystem based on analysis of representative documents included in the RDSand a set of rules, wherein the seed representative data includes abalanced number of representative data across a plurality of classes;updating the RDS by adding or removing representative data from the RIDSbased on feedback received about accuracy of classification of one ormore documents by the classification system; and retraining the KB,wherein the retraining is performed based on occurrence of one or moreevents.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more events comprisepassage of a certain period of time.
 3. The method of claim 1 whereinthe one or more events comprise receiving a certain number of feedbacks.4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more events compriseadopting a certain number of feedbacks b adding or deleting one or morerepresentative data from the RDS.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein theone or more events comprise both receiving N feedbacks and adding atleast X representative data to the RDS as a result of receiving the Nfeedbacks.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the representative data isassociated with one or more classes in the plurality of classes, themethod further comprising updating the RDS such that number of classeswith which the representative data is associated and the number ofrepresentative data in each class is adjusted to maintain a balancedinclusion of representative data in each class.
 7. The method of claim 6wherein the updating of the RDS is performed, in response to determiningthat a number of representative data associated with a first class fromamong said plurality of classes is above a first threshold,
 8. Themethod of claim 6 wherein the updating of the RDS is performed, inresponse to determining that a number of representative data associatedwith a first class from among said plurality of classes is below asecond threshold.
 9. The method of claim 6 wherein the updating of theRDS is performed, in response to determining that a number ofrepresentative data in the RDS has exceeded a third threshold.
 10. Themethod of claim 6 wherein the updating of the RDS is performed, inresponse to determining that a number of representative data in the RDShas fallen below a fourth threshold.